The Writing and Randomness of a DPT Student and Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author

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Of Books and Dragons

I’m taking a quick break from the studying life to write this. Yesterday I made a trip home for a book signing. (The school I’m attending is only 2 hours away from home and in Texas time that’s hardly a trip at all.) I set up shop in the book section of Hastings Entertainment ready for my first experience of selling books on consignment. It went very well. Of course being home, some friends came out and purchased books, but I was able to get a fair amount of strangers interested by stalking customers, I mean circulating, through the store and handing out bookmarks. This has been the most successful of all of my other signings (4 whole events) and it was very encouraging. My family came and was very supportive throughout. I chatted with my oldest sister who acted as first editor for The Rise of Aredor for a few minutes. She said she was happy to enjoy the author experience vicariously through me and didn’t envy the effort I had to put in. I agreed and said that the book will only be as successful as I want it to be. I think that’s something that all of us new authors struggle with. We want our book to be an overnight success. Obviously our friends and family thought our book was great so why shouldn’t the rest of the world? But a lot of hard work has to come first before we even have a chance of tasting that success. Even the very famous authors started out as nobodies at the bottom of the publishing world. So I have to pay my dues and do uncomfortable things like talk to strangers about my book and try and convince them that they should buy it.

Now, here’s a bit of shameless self promotion. I have a giveaway listed through Goodreads.com. 5 signed copies are available until August 1. You can sign up for the giveaway here.

Now onto the Dragons portion of this post. After the signing, my younger sisters and I rushed to the nearest movie theater to take in the magic of How To Train Your Dragon 2. It was spectacular. We laughed, I teared up, and we were all filled with a longing to have our own Night Fury. Now, I don’t know if I can say that it’s better than the first installment (which I watch as often as I can), but it definitely came close. I highly recommend it.

And now I’m back in Lubbock, TX, gearing up for another week of anatomy and stress eating. I had my first exam on Friday and I’m sure a pity party will be thrown once I get my grade back. I really can’t recommend being a student and a published author. You have to juggle your responsibilities and prioritize. But PT school has been my dream for years, so I’m putting academics first as much as I can. They let us out into the sunlight on semester breaks so that’s when I’ll be chasing another dream. Which is obviously to find a dragon.